The Seventeenth Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Fertilization and the Activation of Development will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of new developments and ideas in this exciting, rapidly advancing field. This meeting will be held at the Holderness School, Plymouth, New Hampshire, July 12 - July 17, 2009. This conference has been held every two years since 1974. It is the only Gordon Research Conference concerned with the interaction of the male and the female gametes in the vital process of fertilization and activation of the fertilized egg to begin the process of embryo formation. It provides a venue for the interaction of biochemists, cell biologists, molecular biologists, physiologists, geneticists, and biophysicists working in the field. This conference has been singularly successful in fostering collaborations among scientists with widely disparate experience and seniority and, among research laboratories in this country and in Europe, Japan, Australia and Latin America. These collaborations have borne many fruitful results. There will be nine sessions in the conference, following the Gordon Research Conference format. They are: 1) Gamete Differentiation. 2) Sperm epididymal maturation and capacitation. 3) New approaches to gamete and embryo biology. 4) Fertilization and activation of development. 5) Sperm flagellar regulation. 6) Egg and embryo polarity. 7) Key Note Lecture - Evolution of gamete recognition proteins. 8) Egg envelopes and the sperm acrosome reaction. 9) Embryogenesis and epigenetics. These sessions will include both scheduled speakers and possibly some selected short talks chosen from posters. Particular emphasis has been placed on junior scientists, including postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Gordon Research Conference on Fertilization and the Activation of Development is concerned with the interaction of sperm and eggs in the vital process of fertilization and activation of the fertilized egg to begin the process of embryo formation, which are key processes underlying human fertility. It provides a venue for the interaction of biochemists, cell biologists, molecular biologists, physiologists, geneticists, and biophysicists working in the field. The conference will promote collaborations to address human infertility, activation of embryonic development, stem cell biology, and contraception among US and international scientists with widely disparate experiences/seniority, methodologies, and model systems.